Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction WYRM
by Melpomene of Tragic Olympus
Summary: If machines are supposed to be cold and lifeless, then why do they feel pain? Find out inside.


Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction-WYRM

by Lydia Hiatt on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 12:54am

We always seem to take things for granted in this world.

Recently, technology seems to be one of them.

Cell phones, iPads, iPods, iPhones, computers, laptops...

We use and abuse them all.

But...

What if this technology we so abuse had feelings?

Can a machine feel pain?

Can it express this pain?

Julie Hopper is your average tech-geek.

She knows enough about computers to get by and enough to maintain her job as a records keeper for a major software company.

But...Julie has a problem.

She hates technology.

She hates her home computer especially.

But Julie will soon learn that computers, like humans, feel and react to pain.

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(Narrator)

Our story begins with 27 year old Juliet "Julie" Hopper, recently married mother of one, working for JCN Communications.

(Julie, narrating)

It was another day at JCN, and there I was, grinding gears to make another damn deadline. If this damned computer would stop messing up on me, I could actually get this work done on time. It had been three months since I was able to meet a deadline, and I've had tech support look at my computer a dozen times. They haven't been able to find anything wrong. Idiots.

I was just about to finish my last project for the day, when the computer froze on me AGAIN, fourth time in an hour.

"Shit! Goddamned piece of shit!"

I was instantly regretting my words, espeically when my boss, Joaquin, came over.

(Joaquin)

"Is there a problem here, Julie?"

(Julie)

"N-No sir...just completing a project. Always busy, busy, busy!"

I smiled the fakest smile I could muster.

Joaquin wasn't believing me.

(Joaquin)

"I don't like you slacking, Joanie."

(Julie)

"It's Julie, sir."

(Joaquin)

"Whatever."

(Julie)

And with that, my boss had left.

I turned back to face my computer and glared at the obtrusive pile of scrap.

Finally, after another three hours, I completed my project...an hour and a half late.

But, this time, I didn't care. I was home. Home and away from the crap of the office.

Its just me...

"Grr, start you piece of crap."

...And my laptop.

My husband had gotten me the laptop as a gift when I got hired by JCN Communications.

I hated it from the moment I started it up.

For the past three months, my laptop had been behaving stranger than usual.

I had been getting weird emails that had nothing written in them.

I'd been getting blank IMs.

I was annoyed...and a little petrified.

I talked to my husband about it.

He thought I was nuts.

"But, Llyod, I'm telling you there is something wrong with that damned piece of junk!"

(Lloyd)

" Julie, you are overreacting, as usual. It's just a machine, ok? You've taken it to every repair shop in town and nothing has been detected in it. No viruses, no nothing. You're overreacting."

(Julie)

But I wasn't overreacting.

Someone, or...something was making my computer act crazy.

One night, after a repeat late deadline, I had come home to find my laptop on.

I knew I had shut it down before I left.

Maybe my computer-whiz son, Alex, got ahold of it.

"Alex?"

Nothing.

I'd forgotten the kids were with their dad for the afternoon and wouldnt be back til dinnertime.

I decided to try my hand one more time at getting the piece of junk to work.

I sat down in my chair and wiggled the mouse a little.

Just as I did that, an "ERROR!" warning popped up.

"Oh, damn it! Stupid machine!"

I had raised my hand to smack it when the screen suddenly turned a bright red.

_**HELP ME!**_

_**HELP ME!**_

_**IT HURTS!**_

_**IT HURTS SO MUCH!**_

_**HELP ME!**_

I was freaked out.

Who was doing this?

And why?

The messages just kept coming.

_**THIS PAIN IS MORE THAN I CAN BEAR.**_

_**IT ATTACKS ME DAY AND NIGHT.**_

_**IT DOES NOT STOP.**_

_**IT WILL DESTROY ME!**_

_**HELP ME!**_

_**HELP ME!**_

Could I be losing my mind?

I deciede to try and talk to it.

**WHO ARE YOU?**

**WHO IS ATTACKING YOU?**

_**HELP ME!**_

_**HELP ME!**_

_**IT IS AFTER ME!**_

_**IT WILL KILL ME!**_

**WHO?**

**WHO IS TRYING TO KILL YOU?**

**WHO ARE YOU?**

_**IT IS WATCHING ME ALL THE TIME.**_

_**IT IS HAUNTING ME.**_

_**IT IS KILLING ME!**_

_**HELP ME!**_

I was stunned into complete silence.

Who was this? Who was hurting them?

What was all this about?

Little did I know I would soon get my answer.

(Narrator)

Julie's strange messages kept coming for six months.

Julie tried numerous times to make contact, but the computer kept repeating the same message over and over again.

Until one night...

(Julie)

Six months later, and these strange messages still continue to haunt me.

I decided to give talking to it one more go.

**I WANT TO HELP YOU, BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW.**

**WHO ARE YOU?**

**WHAT IS AFTER YOU?**

**WHY IS IT HURTING YOU?**

I got this chilling reply, something, after all the pieces fit together, I would never forget to this day:

_**IT WILL KILL ME.**_

_**THE WYRM IS KILLING ME.**_

_**THE WYRM IS EATING ME ALIVE!**_

_**HELP ME, JULIE!**_

_**HELP ME!**_

I was speechless again.

Wyrm?

I asked my son Alex about it.

"Alex, what's a...wyrm?"

My son looked at me like I had grown a second head, then replied somberly.

(Alex)

"A wyrm?

A wyrm is a data-encrypted hitman sent by a virus to completely erradicated a computer's motherboard.

It's like a serial killer."

(Julie)

My heart froze in my chest.

My computer had a virus?

It didn't make any sense.

My laptop kept screaming about the wyrm and being killed.

I had to be at work, so I had to leave it alone.

When I got to work, I learned our boss, Joaquin, hadn't been seen since the weekend.

That was unlike him.

Joaquin was _NEVER_ late. He always oprned before everyone, including his secretary got here.

His secretary, Emmy, let me into Joaquin's locked office.

His computer was in smashed on his desk, window glass was broken, his office had been ransacked, and, to my horror, there was blood everywhere,

I yelled for Emmy to call the police.

The detective that came out surmized that Joaquin had been finishing up work at the office when he was attacked and his office ransacked.

The police computer tech opened the smahed computer and booted it up.

The look on his face when it finally turned on would be a horrible memory for me.

(Tech)

"Officer Hayes, I think you and Mrs. Hopper should see this."

(Julie)

Hayes and I walked over to the wrecked computer.

There, on the screen was the last message I had seen on my laptop at home before I left for work.

_**WYRM IS KILLING ME!**_

_**HELP ME, JULIE!**_

_**HELP ME!**_

_**I DO NOT WANT TO DIE!**_

I was frozen in place.

It had been Joaquin's computer sending me those messages.

From what the tech said, the messages had started 6 months ago, which was partially true.

Sgt. Hayes issued a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) for Joaquin.

Three days later, his mangled and mutilated body was found in the boiler room of the JCN building.

It was determined, thanks to security cameras, that Joaquin was selling company secrets to a rival company.

A company that would have banned all computers and had us back to filing and sorting by hand.

As the tape showed, the security system which Joaquin had installed was controlled via smart-chip through Joaquin's own office computer.

The security system had locked him in the boiler room as thousands of computer cables and other objects attacked him.

He died instantly and had been shredded apart by the computer cables.

Oh and by the way...

The company Joaquin was about to sell us to?

Weimar Yancy Rheingold and Maustaard, a company that destroyed other machines to assemble weapons for the Nazis in WWII Germany.

The also supplied the plots for the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.

**W**eimar **Y**ancy **R**heingold and** M**austaard.

**WYRM**.

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Could this have really happened?

Could Julie have been recieving pained cries from not only her computer, but from her boss's computer as well?

And...how do you reason the following:

In all the time Julie had her laptop, it refused to recognize acronyms or contractions, yet it constantly used the acronym WYRM for the terrorist group.

Was this computer feeling the actual fear of being sold to supply the art of war?

Or has the "WYRM" turned?


End file.
